Thursday, 1 September 2016

Autumn

1st September is, it seems, the official start of autumn. It's always been my favourite time of year, partly because it signalled the start of the hockey season – alas, only a memory now. It's also the time for picking elderberries and blackberries, with a small crop of each on the towpath by last night's mooring. Elderberries go as well as blackberries with Bramley apples.

It was a fine day for cruising, and there were numbers of boats out on the Coventry Canal. After something of a traffic jam at one bridge, we found ourselves behind this one.

They seemed rather nervous boaters, and after a while a queue of about half a dozen had collected behind them.

They finally pulled over at Streethay, and we were able to push on.

Boaters aren't supposed to be in a hurry, of course, but we were on a mission to get to Fazeley. So it was an exercise in patience when we found ourselves behind another slow coach. Fortunately he let us by after half a mile. Rather later than planned, but still enjoying the sunshine, we found ourselves at Fazeley Junction…

and turned right under the Watling Street bridge…

to moor up a couple of hundred yards down on the left. We're here for a Boaters' Christian Fellowship weekend. Some of it serious – a couple of sessions exploring BCF's values. But also some games, a BBQ and some in-house entertainment.